Dark Smalltown
by lazyvirgo
Summary: Nicki Jones is a sassy, young waitress, who works in a small town with a lot of secrets no one covets anymore. One night a mysterious "hunk of man meat" walks into her diner. Vampire? Were? Lemonz in later chapters. first fanfic, plz review!
1. Diner Fight!

CHAPTER 1

Nicki Jones rushed into the Long Beach Diner's backdoor and quietly put down her purse and tied an apron around her waist. She grabbed her check pad and crept towards the silver flip doors, hoping that "Boss" wouldn't notice her being a half an hour late. But of course she did.

"Jones!"

Nicki cringed. "Yeah, boss?" She asked tentatively.

"You think I pay you to lie around and slur your words?" Boss' frizzy gray hair stuck up in all directions and her sharp blue eyes held Eugenie's nervous stare.

"Boss, with all do respect, I don't drink." _I'm sixteen and a virgin, you think I drink?_ Nicki thought bitterly, but she kept her teetering composure and bit her lip.

Boss grunted, "Get out there 'fore I change my mind."

"Thanks boss." Nicki said, grateful for the relief sans the end of the lecture. Eugenie hurried out the door, heading to her section of the diner.

No one was in need of getting his or her order in, so Nicki walked to the register and to where a man was waiting to pay his bill.

"Hello sir, can I help you?" She asked in her best cheery voice.

The man looked up from staring at the menu stuck under the glass tabletop, Nicki's breath caught slightly. "Can I have a cup of warm synth?" He asked plainly.

Her breath puffed out in a whoosh. _He was a vampire. Synth was synthetic blood; at least he wasn't drinking the real stuff,_ Nicki shivered. She hadn't had one of the vamps in a couple of weeks and she wasn't expecting them for some reason.

The vamp cleared his throat.

Nicki started. "Synth, right coming up." On her way to the freezer, Eugenie took a deep breath and thought of all the vamps who had come in, they had been way more aggressive than Fang up front, and she had lived through that. He couldn't be bad, he was too passive, maybe that was the problem.

Nicki shook her head, these thoughts she was having were unneeded, so she shook them off and opened the freezer. She grabbed the freshest synth bag and grabbed a mug. She unclipped notch and let the blood fill to just under the brim. She carefully clipped the bag back and walked it back to the freezer. She snagged the mug from the counter, and almost dropped it, her hands were so sweaty. She set it back and tried to quickly gather her jangling nerves. She wiped her palms on her apron and then wrapped her fingers around the mug slowly.

Nicki bumped the door with butt, and then walked to the front to give the vamp his synth.

He wasn't there. She looked around and spotted him across the room in a small booth in her section. He was now wearing a black baseball hat, pulled down low over his face. His fingers were drumming the table and Genie could clearly tell he was impatient; she hurried the mug to the table and set it down in front of him. "Will that be all?" Nicki froze as she realized what she just said. She was supposed to set the mug down, not make eye contact, and then walk away. Vamps couldn't have human food. _Fuck_, Eugenie thought angrily. _Why did I have to say that_, Nicki mentally cursed herself.

The vamp looked up with a common look of disbelief and one eyebrow raised. Her own look of amazement must have shown because his lip twitched in the vampire's form, or closest thing to it, of a smile.

Nicki mentally panicked and stood frozen, unable to decide what to do.

The vamp sniffed the air, "I can smell your fear." He said it bluntly and without a trace of bloodlust.

Nicki found herself even more shocked than before, and that somehow put her brain into gear and she turned around walked away, fast.

Nicki hurried into the kitchen and, her friend, Darla noticed her agitation. "'Sup, babe?" Darla flipped her long dark locks over her shoulder and snapped her gum.

Nicki answered softly, "Nothin', darlin'" She smiled faintly.

Darla always let that one go, because she didn't like to push, so she turned grabbed a dish Boss handed her and walked out the kitchen doors.

Nicki heard the doors open again and turned around to see what Darla had forgotten. "Did you forget somethin' darlin'?" Nicki turned and blushed furiously. It was _him._ He had his mug in hand and that made Nicki imagine all the reasons he had come in here with. Maybe he wanted _her _blood.

He calmly walked towards her, "I asked for it warm." He said simply.

_Crap_, she thought, _I forgot to warm it up. _"Oh, I'm so sorry; I'll get that for you." She held her hand for the cup, thankful it didn't shake.

He handed it to her, for one moment their fingers touched, a zing of electricity zoomed up Nicki's arm and she winced.

He noticed it but didn't acknowledge it.

_Thank god for that,_ Nicki thought as she placed the cup in the zapper. _How does he have this much patience, why hasn't he drained me? By legal Washington law he has the right to drain me, since I disgraced him._ Nicki shook off the thought, "disgrace" was a strong word, and watched the mug of red synth spin around slowly. The microwave beeped and she removed the mug and turned, he was still there. "Here you go sir, I'm sorry for the mistake about your synth." She kept he jaw clenched so she wouldn't feel tempted to say something more stupid than what she had already said.

His lip twitched again.

What was so goddamn amusing about a girl screwing up everything she does, just because he asked for some blood and gave her some human-like looks. As the vamp walked out of the kitchen, Nicki glanced at the clock. 10:30pm, it was hard to believe that she had only been here a half an hour and she had already set herself her death date. Swell.

Nicki gathered her wits and walked out into the dining area to take orders from the usual late night snackers. Nicki walked to the register and looked at the diner populous. There was Joey- the guy who always came to ask Darla out, Gary- the middle-aged science nerd, Anthony- the Italian who liked Boss' greasy burgers, and then there was the vamp again- he was seated at the counter now, not far from where she stood.

Suddenly, the door came open with a whoosh of air and the Clayton kids who dealt drugs in the main alleys walked in. Dave, Connor, Patrick, and Kenny.

They considered the diner _their turf_ and no one who didn't work there or were regulars had to go through them to get permission to come, no one really did though.

The kids, who really weren't kids-they were really like twenty-five years old, walked up to the counter and cleared their throats.

Nicki walked up to them, assuming they were alerting her to come to them. They just looked at her. She took that time to hand them plastic menus. Patrick-the fat one-cocked his head at the vamp sitting a couple seats down.

The vamp wasn't paying any attention to the Clayton and so Nicki inconspicuously put her hand on her neck and pinched the skin between her nails.

Connor-the asshole-got up and walked up to the vamp and spun his chair so he could effectively put his face up in the vamps-gutsy, and stupid. "You think you can come up in here and trespass our joint?" He accused.

The vamp stayed silent but Nicki could tell he didn't like being made a fool of.

Kenny got up and seconded his brother. In the course of five more seconds Dave and Patrick- dumb and dumber, got up and copied Kenny. They all got up in the vampire's face and taunted him.

Nicki looked around; everyone was hunched over their food and silent. They obviously didn't want a part of fucking up the peace between vamps and humans.

What confused her was that the Clayton's were getting in the vamp's face and they, to put very bluntly, were being stupid- they thought the vamp wasn't a vamp and just another faker. He obviously was.

The vamp's jaw flexed.

"Guys, don't be doin' that in here. I don't want to be responsible for a fight in my diner." Boss finally spoke up from being silent in the kitchen, the safest place to be.

Nicki finally realized that being still and useless was not the best thing to do. She carefully turned her head and spotted Darla seated next to Joey, gripping his hand.

The Claytons all backed off of the vamp and got cocky as they walked out the door. "Freak." Then they were gone.

Nicki had a feeling they'd be back, she risked a glance at the vamp and was relieved to see that he was not charging after the Wirkala's and was just sitting at the counter.

He still seemed to be tense but slowly as time went on, he relaxed.

After everyone had paid and left, Nicki checked the clock, it was 12:45am, and started to clean up. She was just throwing away all the used check papers when she felt a presence, again. She turned tiredly and wasn't surprised to see the vamp. She finally had time to analyze him and realized he was really hot. His hair was an icy blonde and his bangs were lazily drooping into his eyes to give him that shaggy and sexy look. His hair was very long; it passed his collar and was elegantly braided down to between his shoulder blade's. His cheekbones high, his chin a perfect cleft, he was tall but not bulky, his lean muscles rippled under his skintight cotton shirt. Since he was giving her the once over too, Nicki had the chance to look down at his long legs, sheathed in a pair of nicely faded jeans. She quickly looked up, he looked to be in his mid twenties, in human age, but the wisdom in his eyes told her his age was way older. Like maybe one-hundred or older. She was never good at guessing, but she knew it was all in the eyes.

Nicki thought of what she must look like, she had short black hair gelled back against her skull with edgy red streaks through it, she was taller than an average woman, bumping up against 5-11 which made her realize that this guy had to be at least 6'8", considering she had to tip her head considerably to see his face. Her eyes had always been the weird part of her, a purplish-blue where they iris met the pupil and ending a creepy purple-black on the outside. She wasn't overly thin, but her butt was like a homing beacon to all mankind's hands. Her boobs had always been annoying, uncooperative to stay in bras, damn all double-Ds.

Eugenie got back down to business. "Can I help you sir?" Eugenie was tired, but he was a vamp and could snap her neck with his thumbs if she disrespected him- strange behavior from the night before excluded.

He answered in a way no vamp usually answered. He smiled. "Thanks for being human."

_Huh?_

Without an explanation of his statement, he walked out the door and into a wall of angry Clayton druggies.


	2. Welcome To My Home, Surprise!

CHAPTER 2

His eyes went wide for a moment before he got his poker face back, having the nerve to look bored of Claytons.

"Hey, we want to talk to you, punk." Kenny said, looking pissed.

_Pfft, who's the real punk? Think about it for a second._

Like there would be any talking, Nicki thought numbly as the vamp was grabbed by Connor and Patrick and dragged outside. He wasn't doing anything to defend himself, considering he was a vamp he would've taken them down in a single moment. He had to be a vamp, he'd ordered synth. She looked over to the booth the vamp had been sitting at, the cup was untouched. _Shit. He's a phony. A good phony. __He can't handle himself, ohmigod, they're all going to beat the shit out of him_, Nicki thought this over and over and couldn't get the irrational and rational part of her brain to agree on what to do. She could call the police and report assault at the diner, that wouldn't go far, the Clayton's were the sheriff's cousins. Even the _sheriff_ was obligated to them. Great.

Nicki, without thinking, rushed to the register, where the boss kept the warning gun, the gun that broke up fights on the premise. She grabbed the gun and checked for bullets in the .22 Glock Boss had registered to the diner. There were no bullets in the barrel so she reached farther under the counter and grabbed the pack of bullets. She loaded the gun with numb expertise, considering that it was a Louisiana town. She pulled the snag back and walked out the door, where the vamp was fighting Kenny and Patrick. There were four Clayton's, all tough and willing to fight, and two other druggies, fighting for their place in the Clayton's superiority. _Hah._ Nicki thought as she approached the gang.

"Break it up!" She yelled, raising the gun in the air and firing once for effect. The shot reverberated through her arm, all the Claytons looked up and the other potheads just ran. "Get off the property before I shoot you all, don't think I won't." Nicki pulled the snag back again and aimed at Kenny for effect.

"Bitch, we'll be back to get you." Dave warned, but they all hurried off as soon as he finished his threat. Nicki hadn't realized she was sweating until a warm bead rolled down, between her breasts. She felt weak and shaky, but remembered her purpose and ran to where the vamp was laying on the cement, passed out. She wasn't assuming he was dead because vamps could only be killed by silver and wooden stakes through the heart and sunlight, they practically drank holy water as a joke to mortals, saying it tickled as it went down- it didn't harm them in the slightest. He was for sure a vamp because of the fangs he had failed to sheath when the fight started, and ended.

Nicki couldn't decide what to do and felt the need to get a passed out vamp in a parking lot out of the suspicious area, but the sun wasn't near the horizon. Nicki took action quickly by pulling her car around from the back and loading the vamp into the trunk. She felt bad and scared for putting a vamp in her trunk, but she had to get him to safety. He was heavy, too. She went back inside and gathered all her things and locked up behind her. The balmy autumn night did nothing to help her rid herself of the chills.

Getting inside the car felt like getting inside a barrier that protected her from the Clayton's, even though they had left, and that was the first good emotion she experienced that morning. Nicki turned on the car and felt it rumble to life beneath and around her. She pulled onto the highway and since no one was up at this time, she went at her speed. She thought of all that had happened that past night and thought of how big of assholes the Clayton's were being, even though the man was a vamp he was a person in their strange society and had the right to be, or so she hoped.

When she finally pulled into the driveway of her house, she had sufficiently calmed herself. She backed up so she could get the vampire inside the house without having to haul him all the way, smart eh? When she went to open the trunk she was met with a pair of icy blue eyes staring at her curiously, she jumped.

"Gosh, you are really good at doin' that aren't you?" Her attempt at being friendly failed and the vamp just raised his eyebrow, again.

He had looked like hell when she had put him in the truck, but now some of the scrapes disappeared and he just had a big bruise under his eye and a little blood was trickling still from a slash on his cheek.

He reached a hand up in the form of a truce and she gratefully took it and helped him out of the open truck bed at the same time. Thankfully the house was big and had a wraparound porch, so she could easily get him inside.

They both walked to the porch and as Nicki unlocked the door, she felt safe with the vamp and realized an act wouldn't have lasted this long and that he may actually not want to drain her. Nice.

The house was clean thanks to her ability to keep things clean. Her mom abandoned her at age fourteen to run off with a real estate agent, whose face looked like a constipated pig, and the property was already paid for, so she was fine on her own, and now an adult anyhow. She let the vamp get inside then wordlessly went downstairs to her emergency synth supply. She picked out a bag and came back upstairs, the vamp seemed angry, but she didn't know specifically what he was angry about. He was sitting at the table and glaring at whatever seemed closest. In her photo, she was wearing plain overalls, reading a book with her hair in a ponytail. Dmitri, her sex-prone brother, had taken that after their mom abandoned them, he was already a senior in high school and didn't bother her peace but occasionally came by for money. She always gave it to him.

The vampire seemed to notice her for the first time and rested his gaze on her. She walked to the cabinet with the mugs and grabbed the most respectable one; it was plain black and didn't have a chip in it. She silently filled it with synth and stuck it in the zapper. When she pulled it out and turned to hand it to him, she almost collided with him. He was right behind her, again.

She backed up a little and handed him the synth. He took it from her and stared at it a moment. While he was still fascinated with the mug Eugenie turned and snagged a hand towel and doused it with warm water on one end and cold on the other. She walked to him slowly and when he didn't stop her, she softly dabbed the cut until it was clean. Then she went to the freezer and grabbed some ice and wrapped it in a clean towel. She placed the ice on the bruise and held it there while he sipped some of the synth. He just stared at her with his hard green eyes and she stared back, enraptured. _Wait a sec, green eyes, what the hell?_

After he gulped down the rest of the synth, she took the mug from him and placed it in the sink and filled it with water. When she turned on the water, he came next to her and watched her soap it up and wash it.

After she finished, she went to sit down on the couch and motioned for him to come sit down as well. A while of silence ensued, but it wasn't uncomfortable, they were both tired and beaten- except him literally. Finally Eugenie decided to start a conversation. She didn't know his name, either. "I'm Nicki, what's your name?" She cocked her head to the side, as if to show genuine curiosity.

He seemed startled by her sudden want for conversation but answered anyhow, "My name's Sterling."

Nicki couldn't explain how she felt, he was inducing her with his fever, she was getting caught up with him and she was enjoying it. Suddenly his words hit her, she laughed.

He seemed startled by her laughter, "Sterling-!" She broke off, unable to formulate a coherent sentence.

_Is it me?_ she thought. _'Cuz that's a hella funny name. _He seemed preoccupied with figuring out what she was laughing at. That was unusual considering vamps were always very focused on the task at hand. Maybe that was the task at hand, to get rid of her. Or just to get the hell out of there. _Am I coming on too strong? Is he finally realizing that I am a wonderful draining bimbo?_ Nicki started to panic and decided that this always happened to guys she liked. They weren't interested in her they were interested in what they could get out of it. Lots, if they played it right. But she remembered that she was just a dreamy-eyed virgin, and considering his looks, he got more than what would be expected. Surprisingly, that snapped her out of it pretty quick and she got up and started to walk away.

He grabbed hold of her arm.

Nicki turned around. _He can probably smell my virginity_, she thought dully. Vamps had abilities that humans would only dream of, but also humans hated them because their mortal senses would be increased by a supernatural rate, they could smell emotions, they could hear your thoughts if you open yourselves up to them, they could do things that would slow your mind.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly.

She did her best eyebrow raise and answered innocently, "Nothin'" She put her accent on in full. He had an accent, but it was faint and only came out noticed when he said certain words. Maybe Scottish or Irish, sure sounded like it, even though his total vocabulary for the past twelve hours had been about fifteen words. Hello, how are you, with only a little else for good measure.

The vamp didn't look convinced. Hell, a retard wouldn't be convinced. "Can I do something to soothe you?" He asked, his voice like water rushing over river stones.

"Uh, well, I don't think there is much that you could do, I've met another vampire, I've broken up a bar fight, and I've helped you get through the daylight, and what are you so amused about?" I finished with a question, his face giving away amusement.

"I'm not a vampire."


	3. Admitting and Fainting

CHAPTER 3

Nicki froze. _You've got to be shittin' me, _she thought. "After all the fuckin' things I have gone throught tonight, you tell me you're not a fuckin' fang face!" Nicki didn't give a shit about her trash mouth to a mysterious immortal freak, she doubted he would do anything to her. Well, she hoped.

"Actually, I am from an ancient race of immortals that used to rule the Underworld." His tone was deadpan, like he had told her he had just gone out for a walk around the block.

Nicki rolled her eyes, and spun around and slammed her fist into the wall. "Goddamn you! You're a fuckin' Ancient!?" Nicki knew enough about the supernatural shit, to know that Ancient were shitfucked up the ass in power and royalty.

"Yes, I am." He answered flatly.

Slightly surprised that she felt no pain from practically banging her fist through the wall, Nicki still had a snappy response. "What the hell is your problem? Can't you say more that? Three words?" She started at her voice, she _growled._ She sounded animalistic, _that was cool._

Sterling raised his eyebrows, "Well it seems that your powers have started to awaken. Must be my proximity."

"Now, what are you trying to do? Fuck with my head, Sterling? Is that even your real name?" Nicki didn't know what he was talking about, and she certainly knew that she didn't have any powers.

"Well, actually, now that you ask, no, my name is not Sterling. It was a poor cover name, but apparently got the job done."

"Oh, really, and what was your job?" Nicki sneered, _wow I'm mondo bitch today. Eh, whatever._

"Locating our destined mate and queen." He answered, his eyes heating slightly, glancing down at her breasts, practically popping out of her corset.

Nicki's heart stuttered and picked up again. "Well, then you should probably leave me alone, and go find her." Secretly she was disappointed that he was Taken, but she could get any guy. She pointed to the door. "Leave." She grumbled.

"Who said that I haven't already?" He asked, his eyebrows not budging from their new home, high in his hairline.

Nicki's blood rushed through her body. "Well, then, you can borrow my car and go get her." She grinned expectantly, nodding encouragingly, and motioned to the door again. _Sarcasm is definitely my strong suit, _Nicki thought.

"I don't need to go pick her up, unless you like being in the air."

Nicki froze. "What are you saying?" She cocked her head, and her hand dropped.

"Sterling" walked towards her slowly, "You know what I'm trying to say Nicki Jones."

Nicki gulped, then squeaked when, with amazing speed, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Apparently, her trashy vocal cords still worked, "Put me the fuck down, you stupid asshole!"

"Now, now, can't have the boys getting the wrong impression of you, now can we?" He said loping easily towards the car.

"Hey, what's your name, really? I mean I think I might go along with this whole thing as long as you're not a creepy stalker, I mean you're ridiculously hot so–wait, why the fuck did I just say that?!" Nicki slapped a hand over her mouth. _What the hell was that? _

"Well, your powers and abilities are awakening faster than I thought. Hm, since, you are now accepting your role I can tell you that my real name is Kristìan." He, of course, had his full-on phone sex voice on that had Nicki's stomach doing triple back flips. They had reached the car now and he was opening the passenger door.

Nicki used her recently acquired abdominal strength to twist and sit on his shoulder. She would be teetering if didn't move his hand to her left thigh and keep her there. "Didn't I lock the doors?" Nicki looked down and noticed that the lock was in the locked down set.

Kristìan grinned, showing off his pearly whites. "Yes you did, my sweet."

Nicki shrugged and jumped off his shoulder, gracefully. "Wow, I just did that without thinking and I was like six and a half feet in the air."

His grin didn't budge. "Babe, your powers are now almost present. And you have grown to your full height."

Nicki looked up at him, his braid had come loose in parts and the early morning sun shined through it, making it seem like silver-gold strands. "Ok, explain this to me, I'm your mate, you're an Ancient, you can open locked doors, and–wait, what kind of powers do I get? Are they super kick ass? Ooh, can I call you Kris?" Nicki was jumping with excitement now. _This is super cool!_

Kris picked me up bridal-style and put me in the passenger seat. "We'll all explain it when we get home. But, I wil tell you that you are my leading clan's mate, we're the kings of our race."

"Babe, you're avoiding the question, how many of you?" Nicki felt warm all over and was worried about what the number would be.

Kris sighed, "Well, if you must know, there are thirty of us."

Nicki gasped, before everything went black.


End file.
